


Mercury 8 : MIA

by TechnoLichy



Category: Titanfall
Genre: Other, Survival
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-16
Updated: 2016-11-16
Packaged: 2018-08-31 09:06:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8572486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TechnoLichy/pseuds/TechnoLichy
Summary: Petra's first drop on Typhon might be her last. The battle wasn't going the militia's way and when it came time to evacuate she missed the boat. Now stranded alone on an IMC planet she's got no choice but to survive the IMC mercenary army and discover the secret they're trying so hard to cover up.





	

   It was my first titanfall. I dropped on the IMC planet Typhon as the Militia’s ships engaged the IMC’s fleet. I was in a brand new Tone chassis and fought as hard as I could for 6 hours. I had rear guard duty so I wasn’t in the brunt of the fighting but I got two Titan kills to my name, even if they were already heavily damaged. I took out a pilot on the ground and a handful of infantry and spectres while I was piloting but eventually I heard the worst words I’ve ever heard in my life. 

   “The battle up top is getting too spicy, they’re pulling us out! How’s our back exit looking Petra?” Captain Miller shouted over the radio. I fired my main gun into a crowd of infantry tearing them to ribbons and quickly looked around. 

   “Clear sir!” I shouted back.

   “Rally on Mercury 8, we’re packing it in!” as the words came out of his mouth I activated the emergency beacon and was notified that a dropship was on it’s way to pick-up our ground troops. The problem with these beacons is that they work both ways. There’s no way to hide them so as soon as the place is selected everyone, friend and foe, converges on it like a swarm of locusts. 

   Almost immediately enemy infantry began pouring out of nearby buildings. This was the hairiest part of the rear guard’s job.  I deployed my vortex shield and began firing rockets into the clusters when a Titan began firing at me at close range. It was a Ronin and the damage it dealt to my titan made it’s right arm sluggish. I swung my main gun like a club hoping to get him away and he dashed back. I fired every rocket I had as soon as I had a good lock and he drew his large blade and blocked half of them.

   The explosions rocked him back and I took the chance to shoot his knee out.  The thinner faster Ronin leg warped and failed on my first shot. I was about to fire a killing shot when Alice, my Titan’s “smart” AI started shouting. 

   “Multiple enemy titans engaging!” I pivoted and put up my particule wall  just in time to absorb a rocket barrage. A wave of explosions bubbled across the wall before it faded to red and disappeared. I fired blindly and tried to get a visual on the titans Alice picked up but I missed and my viewport was filled with a giant fist.

   The Titan’s punch rocked my titan off her feet and rattled my teeth as we landed on our back. I fired my rocket pod and got off the luckiest shot of my life. The first rocket blew open the titan’s cockpit and the rest found the pilot and sensitive electronics inside of it. 

   I quickly climbed to my feet and saw the Northstar titan activate it’s flight core. It fired an wave of deadly rockets at me and I barely dashed behind cover as the rockets found the disabled Ronin from earlier. 

   “Captain! I could use some backup, I’m up to my eyeballs in enemy titans!”

   “Hang in there! We’re on our way!” He shouted back. As he did I saw a Northstar fly around the corner of the building I was hiding behind and begin to open fire. I threw up my shield wall but it didn’t last and I felt massive blast as the rockets detonated against my hull. 

   “Critical hull damage! Recommend you eject Pilot!” Alice shouted urgently.

   “We’ve been through rougher scraps in the sims Alice, hang on!” I tried lifting my primary weapon but the right arm felt too sluggish and weak. I couldn’t get the muzzle pointed high enough to take out the airborne titan. Then the arm gave and the rifle fell to the ground. “Shit!” 

   “Friendly Titan is engaging your target!” Alice shouted as a Red beam fired over my shoulder melting the enemy titan like it was made of butter. I spun to see a handful of battered Militia titans running down the street and captain Miller’s titan venting excess heat from using his laser core. 

   “Drop ship’s here, grab your titan’s AI core and get in the boat! Petra!” His titan shambled over to where the ship was touching down then looked at my handiwork. “Good work, best first combat I’ve ever seen.”

   “Thank you sir!” I shouted back going through the sequences to compartmentalize Alice for quick extraction. Once most of her systems were isolated I checked to see the status of the dropship. Most everyone was on board, the captain was outside his mech pulling his AI core out of his titan’s “face” and the last other pilot was climbing into the ship. 

   Then I heard the worst sound I’d ever hear. I heard the familiar big heavy boom I’d only heard in the sims. Titanfall, right next to me. It was a scorch model, complete with thermite launcher and the thickest armor the IMC produced. It took a swing at the Captain and before I could think I slammed my shoulder into the heavy mech with a full speed dash. It felt like I’d punched a concrete wall while hanging out of a car going 40 miles per hour but it knocked the punch off target and the captain was pulled aboard the ship by the other pilots. 

   “Petra, you’re last one out! Get out of there!” Miller yelled. I wanted to obey that order more than any other since I’d joined the militia. But as I reached for the handle to eject the scorch titan fired it’s thermite launcher and caught me in the chest. 

   The heat was incredible in the cockpit and I screamed till I couldn’t scream any more. The scorch was reloading his launcher for a killing blow and Palmer screamed at me to run. I could smell plastic and metal burning as I reached up and grabbed the eject handle and tried to pull it.

   “Warning Ejection failed. Cockpit is fused shot.” Alice toned sounding more concerned than an AI should. I contemplated what to do and realized there was only one thing I could do. The thing I’d been doing all my life. The thing the militia trained me for. Fight until I can’t get off the floor.

   “Get out of here Miller!” I shouted before going to an open channel. “All right you son of a bitch! You’re coming with me!”

   I charged at him firing every rocket I had left and overclocking every motor in the titan. It ate up battery power but this was it and I’d need everything I could get.

   “Alice! Left hook! Let’s make it one to remember.”

   “Copy that Petra. Dedicating all remaining energy into a last charge.” Alice said calmly.  I made a fist and sprinted at the scorch as he slid a new grenade into his launcher. We activated the dash thrusters and over ramped the shoulder motors winding up the punch. The scorch took its launcher and began to aim it at us. As it fired I flipped up the near useless right arm taking the full brunt of the thermite and melting off. We didn’t break pace, we pushed as hard as it could go

   True to our word the punch was everything I hoped it’d be. The punch landed with a sound of a soda can brushing if the soda can was titanium and steel. The mass and inertia of Alice’s fist caved in the cockpit at the weak spot along the hatch seal and judging from the way the scorch fell to it’s knees it killed the pilot. 

   “Warning! Scorch’s core is unstable self destruct is imminent!” Alice shouted.

   I looked over to the drop ship as it slowly gained altitude. And began slowly limping away from the Scorch. I switched my radio back to the Militia’s encrypted channel as Alice began powering down. Her batteries bleeding dry.

   “Miller... Take care of my little brother. You hear me?” there was a long pause of static before he responded and I thought maybe my radio was dead. 

   “Take care of him yourself! You’re gonna make it! I’m coming back for you! Survive! Whatever it takes! I’ll find you!”

   “...Alice...put everything we have into rear shields then download into my bucket.”

   “The odds of survivability-”

   “I know...what have we got to lose.”

   “...It’s done...Good luck Petra.”

   “You-” 

   And then the brightest light I’d ever seen washed over the viewscreen before it all faded to black..

  
  


   “Pilot. Can you hear me?” I coughed and tasted blood.

   “Yeah. I can hear you… I guess we made it.” I realized that I could see the sky above me and looked around to see the remains of my cock pit. I looked over the rim of sheared metal to see the scorched buildings and fires burning everywhere.

   “Yes. Recommend you retrieve the SERE kit if possible and relocate. It is unclear whether or not the IMC will act swiftly in returning here. While you were unconscious I was able to check your vitals and have come to the conclusion that you are not injured.” I tried to sit up and every muscle and joint felt sore and bruised. 

   “I don’t feel uninjured.” I groaned as I rolled out of the seat onto my hands and knees. As I did the world swam in blurriness and I had to take deep breaths to stop myself from throwing up in my helmet. I reached up to the cylindrical SERE kit, a part of the titan you might call a face, and withdrew from it the Smart pistol and 3 magazines which I holstered appropriately. Then the all purpose data knife, a high explosive hand grenade, and an emergency beacon. 

   Once I had the kit I withdrew the AI core and Installed it into my jump gear. It had more processing power than my helmet and it would allow Alice to think faster and make more intuitive decisions. Then came things like water, dried food, filters, high strength paracord, and batteries for my gear. They’d last a long time on it’s own but now I was living for two. 

   “Alice, how did my rifle fair?” It’d been attached to the door for easy exit but it was now missing.

   “Unknown, predicted ballistics would put it around the location I’ve marked on your HUD. You’ve got 6 full magazines for it on your rig if you do find it.” 

   I began limping in the direction my rifle was supposedly in for lack of better direction. It’s funny how different the city looked from the ground then it did from a titan.  In a titan you towered over almost everything and frontier cities had very few buildings that a titan couldn’t look over. But on the ground it felt like I was an ant in a rat maze. The city was quite large for a frontier planet, there were few skyscrapers but it was a sprawling mass of shorter buildings.

   “Well let’s get the rifle first, if we can. Other rifles will do if I must.”

   “Any nearby weapons would have been propelled or destroyed in the same explosion as my previous chassis.”

   “I’m sorry, I know you were excited to get into it, if we make it out of here I promise I’ll get you one of the new ones like Lastimosa’s.”

   “Vanguard class titans are for use exclusively for the SRS. I don’t believe you’ll be able to acquire one for me. But it is an ideal chassis.”

   “You never know. The two of us make it out of this jam, we might get invited to join the Marauder corps. I know this was our first battle, but you’ve got to admit we kicked ass back there.”

   “Mainly we dismantled them with high powered ordnance. But yes, our combat effectiveness was at 86%” Alice understood sarcasm better than she let on and was the first AI to give me back chat. Which led us to be fast friends.

   “Only 86%? We killed 4 titans single handedly! Surely that’s worth more than B+.”

   “Unlike your educational institutions, I will not round up to protect your feelings.”

   “Harsh.” I said with a grin.

   “Also it was 3 titans, embellishing on the official record is against Militia protocol.” 

   “Chalk it up to the heat of battle.” I said as stretched my arms. Walking had done a good job of restoring the feeling to my legs even if they ached still but my arms still felt numb.

   “Pilot, look up on your left, I have found the rest of the cockpit.”

   Sure enough the door and a bit of the frame was embedded into the wall on the 6th story of a charred building. I checked my knees by doing a few squats and looked for the easiest way to get up there.

   “Ok Alice, I’m gonna run up that wall leap across to that wall then over to that platform-”

   “Your rifle is on the ground. It must have fallen when the cockpit embedded into the wall.”

   “Oh… well why did you make me look up?” I walked over to the rifle and picked it up by it’s stock and saw the sling was burnt off. The barrel and action looked ok but the scope was filled with broken glass. I took it off and checked the iron sights. Still solid. I worked the bolt and it slid like butter. The only way to know for sure was to fire it and make sure but I didn’t want to draw more attention to myself. 

   I felt better with the rifle my parents had passed down to me. It was the G2A4 semi-automatic rifle that my father had used to hunt and defend our little village from natural predators and the IMC when it became unavoidable. I was offered many other higher performance weapons to try but no one could argue that I was not effective with it my old reliable.

   I heard a cough from behind me and swiveled down into a crouch aiming in the direction of the noise. Not hearing any movement I moved slowly towards it as low and slow as I could.

   “You heard that too right Alice?”

   “Yes pilot, adult human male with fluid filled lungs. Approximately 12 meters away. Threat level minor.” I nodded and picked up the pace a little still moving silently until I saw the IMC rifleman sitting against some rubble holding a chest wound. His weapon was nowhere to be seen so I felt pretty sure I wasn’t about to get shot. 

   “You here to finish me pilot?” The rifleman wheezed. I looked around before taking a knee. 

   “No... though at this point it might be a mercy.” I said looking at the pool of blood he sat in.

   “Yeah… I guess I’m not lucky enough for you to be a medic and a humanitarian.” he chuckled to himself before falling into a bloody coughing fit. “Why’d you guys even attack here? This planet doesn’t have much in the way of resources.”

   “Maybe it seems strange to you that the militia knows you’re not welcome on this planet and has come to their aid. We don’t just take whatever we want.”

   “Ain’t that the truth… you know how old I was when the IMC told me I was gonna be a soldier?” he shook his head at the memories and pulled out his dog tags. “They gave me these when I turned 14, took me away from my family, forced me to fight. They told us that our families lives depended on us fighting to protect them.”

   “You telling me that you and your side aren’t killing and raping your way across the frontier? Because they are, I’ve seen it happen. You may have been forced to fight when you turned 14 but I was forced to live without my family and raise my little brother in refugee camps.” I could hear the bitterness and poison in my words but it was genuine.

   “I’m sorry that happened to you…” he almost sounded mournful but I felt it was more for his own death than my pain. “There will always be true believers… But for each of them there’s the ones doing it because they’ve got nowhere else to go and those that didn’t have a choice. You think I wanted to shoot peas at titans?”

   “Then why not join us?”

   “Oh just steal a ship and haul ass like Demiter? We don’t have access like that.Only reason it worked for Graves did was cause he was so high up they didn’t think to stop him.” He paused to break into a coughing fit and spat a good amount of blood onto the ashes around us. Then he laid his head back on the rubble and closed his eyes.  “Some of us… know we’re the bad guys… but can’t escape it… remember that….”

   I looked down at the pool of blood underneath him and estimated that he didn’t have long left one way or another. I stood and pointed my rifle at his head and fired before he came out of his revelry.  

   The sound was thunderous despite the suppressor I’d fixed to it. The echoes of the shot took several seconds to dissipate and only when it did could I appreciate just how quiet this city was. I heard nothing at all but my own short breathing. When I looked back to the man I’d just executed and let myself stare at the star pattern his blood made on the rock behind him. I reached my hand out to check him for equipment but thought better of it.

   “Why did you do that?” Alice asked quietly.

   “Mercy.” I replied switching my helmet back to private so my voice couldn’t be heard outside it. “It’s better fast and unexpected than long and slow.” 

   I tried to say it as confidently as I could, but AI are too smart to fool with bravado. For the first time since we’d established neural link I felt her hesitate. 

   “As you say Petra.”

   We were silent for a while as I walked through the carbon coated remains of what used to be a concrete jungle. I saw signs of the evacuation before our arrival. I saw scattered personal effects from baby clothes to teddy bears. It seemed the city was endless but I still walked for what was supposed to be our emergency pickup point, a clearing deep in the jungle several miles outside the city.

   “Alert! IMC drop ship sound signature detected.” Alice said firmly dropping an arrow on my hood to look in the direction of the sound. I still could not see the engines but Alice amped my audio gear so I could hear it and I indeed heard the sound of the enemy. 

   “How many?”

   “5-6 troop transports and at least one mobile titan. Recommend evasion while possible.”

   I ran my ass off. Weaving through shattered windows and collapsed walls running along walls and jumping between buildings. I heard the sounds of engines getting much closer and looked over my shoulder to see the troop carriers land and almost a dozen pilots pour out of each one. I was trying to get a figure of how many pilots in total were about to start canvasing the area when my foot did not find a wall.

   I immediately started to fall so I activated my jump kit on thin air and looked for where my new trajectory had me landing. No sooner than I saw it I was breaking through it. I landed on my feet and dropped to my knees in a sloppy slide. I banged my head on a table and crashed into the legs with my knee and shoulder. 

   I stayed still, looking around the room and seeing signs of recent life. Empty food pouches and water bottles littered the floor. It looked like a meeting room of some kind. Leather chairs littered the room, several set up like cots. I crawled out from under my desk and stood shakily to my feet. I still felt the nervous energy you feel when you miss a step on the stairs. 

   “D-don’t move!” I heard behind me. “Let me see your hands! S-slowly!” his flashlight blinded me so I decided to do as I was told for the moment. I complied.

   “I-I’m gonna take your weapon, just… just stay still. OK?” I nodded and the light approached me. The way he was holding the light seemed like it was attached to a pistol and he was aiming it at my head. My helmet might be able to deflect it but… an explosion in the distance drew his eyes away from me and I pounced. I grabbed his pistol and spun/pulled it out of his hand while punching him in the kidneys. 

   My rifle fell to my chest and I pointed the pistol at him. He’d relinquished the pistol and recoiled onto the ground in a fetal position.

   “Please! Don’t kill me! I didn’t kill anyone! Please!” He yelled through the arms wrapped around his head. He was wearing a rifleman unif

   I pulled the trigger and hear a resounding click. I looked at the ammo indicator and saw it was empty. I dropped the pistol and pointed my rifle at his head while kicking his arm away. His arm flew back with the helmet he’d been holding on his head and I got my first real look at him.

   He was wearing a rifleman’s uniform but seeing his face… He couldn’t be more than 16. He had dirty blonde hair well past regulations and terrified brown eyes.  He reminded me so much of Jesse that I froze in place. My muzzle inches from his forehead.

   “...What are you going to do?” Alice asked.

   “...Fuck if I know.” I muttered.


End file.
